The old army color was called Olive Drab or OD green. It's a shade of green paint meant to look very flat like or not give off a glare when hit by light at night time. I was in the US Army for more then 6 years on active duty back in the early 1980's, so I know the color but not where to get the paint.

Lee Fritz

Assuming you are meaning WWII era, OD is most correct for Army owned cars. However OD has many variants. The base color was specified by the government in regs but there was a war on and there was considerable variation depending on who was mixing it and the then thinner. Yes it was a mix, black and yellow. Then of course it weathered, sun, rain, got dirty from soot, mud, dust, ballast dust, etc.

Testors and Tamiya make rattle can OD, sometimes in different variations. I think that the Testors OD may be for a later period (yes the spec changed over time). Tamiya makes a couple of different versions, the Panzer olive is not to bad. At the hardware store you can sometimes get reasonably close. I've seen Italian Olive recommended as reasonable. you may need a dull finish, Testor's is good but takes some skill to apply. Tamiya's is good.

I mix Future floor wax and Tamiya (acrylic base) flat base in the bottle together with Tamiya thinner. Carefully applied with an airbrush it is a beautiful thing.

Frank

Scrappy,

Krylon makes Olive Drab in a 12 oz spray can. 

Krylon Camouflage With Fusion For Plastic Paint Olive Drab - K04293000

Mike

ftauss posted:

Assuming you are meaning WWII era, OD is most correct for Army owned cars.

Actually, that's not accurate. Most period photos show that while a few cars were OD green, many (and almost all locomotives) were black or grey if left over from WW1 or the pre-WW2 era. No steam locomotives were painted OD green.

Also, the US Army had very few freight cars of their own during WW2, and almost no passenger cars to speak of, other than hospital train cars. Most troop movements used civilian RR rolling stock and motive power.

But as for OD green, it was a semi-gloss (and had a sheen) in WW2 and a totally different shade from what people think it looked now. OD green became very dark in the postwar era, then lightened again in the 60s to 80s.

I've used spray cans of this stuff on 1:1 scale vehicles (I own a 1944 Willys Jeep) as well as my WW2 scale vehicles on my layout: https://www.armyjeepparts.net/c-211-gci-paint.aspx

Here is an interest page link, Testors Paints.  While they found Model Railroad paints not worthy of their effort, IMO,  there is still an international military selection.  

LeeFritz, Rattler21, FTAUSS, EZMIKE, P51, MikeCT,

So many thanks for the info and, especially, the links. 

I am very interested in mixing eras and colors. 

I think that would add interest to the consist anyway. The vehicles on my flat cars will be a very eclectic mixture of machinery ranging from WWII to the present day. The only way I can see my consist being interpreted as prototypical would be if it was a "museum train" where the vehicles were offloaded for display purposes.

In any case, the train will include tanks from different eras as well as very different types of vehicles so there is a wide array of possible interpretation.

Whether it is right or wrong, I like the Krylon camouflage green.

Looks great, Don

Scrapiron Scher posted:

I think that would add interest to the consist anyway. The vehicles on my flat cars will be a very eclectic mixture of machinery ranging from WWII to the present day. The only way I can see my consist being interpreted as prototypical would be if it was a "museum train" where the vehicles were offloaded for display purposes. 

Fair enough. At least your concept explains the mixing of stuff from different eras. I respect that.

You can also justify it as a Army museum being relocated to another part of the country by a base closure. For example, look up how the Ordnance museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground was moved to Virginia when the Ordnance center was moved there...

Scrappy, I have painted quite a few 1:35 military models for my G scale trains (flat car loads).  I usually try to use Model Master Olive Drab  FS34087 for most of them.  When I have a model that I kind of want to stand out a bit I like to use something just a tiny bit different.  For example, I may use Tamiya Nato Green which is a bit darker than O D Green or from Home Depot Rust-Oleum's Painters Touch Satin Oregano which is a lighter shade of O D Green.  All of these paints are rattle cans.   I think if all the models were the exact same color it would be too boring.

Rick

RICKC,

Great suggestions and a huge help for what I am trying to do. Thanks for weighing in !

Scrappy

The US Army sold some rattle cans in a post-war green years ago surplus. It may be worth while checking out surplus dealers, they may still be doing it off and on.

DMASSO posted:

Whether it is right or wrong, I like the Krylon camouflage green.

The caboose and tanks look good. Have you though about using some kind of chain to secure the tanks to the flatcars? It might be there but I can't see anything like a chain in the photo. 

I was in Germany with the US Army, B troop 11th ACR in Fulda, and we had to secure the tanks with chains and chock blocks to the flatcars or the German railroad (DB) would not let us transport the tanks(M551's and M60's) or other armored (M113) vehicles.  We went down to Graffenwohr for tank gunnery practice.

Lee Fritz